Hello all! Guess what? I have written a fanfiction! I hope you enjoy it greatly, as I have nothing further to say. :D

Chapter 1

The Biology classroom gets extremely hot after I discover I can create fire with my fingers. I suppose that can be expected, right? My forehead begins sweating as I look around to see if anyone noticed, and my heart beats faster in my chest. Luckily, nobody seems to have seen how my fingers seemed to catch on fire out of nowhere. I guess it's a good thing I wasn't holding a pencil or something…

I look at my fingers, expecting to see them burned from the small flames that just appeared on them. But, along with my surprise that there was no pain, there are no scorch marks. Only fingers. Struggling to breath normally, I curl my hands into fists and get the attention of my friend, Rayna, who shares this class with me. She seems to read my mind, as her brow furrows and she says softly, "Another?"

I nod. "I need to get out of here," I reply, matching her tone because I won't be heard if I whisper. I wipe my forehead with my jacket sleeve. Then I stand, shoving my fists into the pockets of my thin gray jacket, striding to the teacher's desk to request my dismissal. Mrs. Sear accepts and I exit the room, walking down the hallway a short way and entering the bathroom. After a quick check of the stalls, I am relieved to find that I am alone. Sighing deeply, I approach the mirror and stare at my reflection. My thick, wavy hair falls past my shoulders and frames my face equally well. My bangs fall over my forehead, giving me a false sense of security—somehow, I always feel less exposed with my bangs hanging just above my eyes, rather than my old cut that let my hair fall to the sides and even tuck behind my ears. It helps me feel like I'm blending in, and I think it works, too, because the only people who actually talk to me are my friends, which is just fine by me. My once thick layer of eyeliner has rubbed to a rather thin line, making me look as if I'm not wearing anything at all, yet still looking pretty good. I take in my appearance in the mirror, and notice, besides all of the details, that I look almost scared. Pale. Thin. Tired.

No. I grab a paper towel from the metal dispenser on the wall and wet it, flinching when my fingers buzz violently at the feel of water running over them. I jerk my hands back, dropping the paper towel in the sink, and examine my fingers, which only feel a prickling sensation in them, like they have fallen asleep. What's happening to me? To us? I sigh in defeat and rub my fingers on my jeans, drying them and calming them, then turn off the water and pick up the paper towel. I run it over my face and breath deeply at the refreshing feeling. When I'm finished, I feel better; a bit more awake. So I throw the paper towel away and decide that I need to get to business. My time here is limited, so I need to make the best of it.

I dry my hands once more and look, staring at them for a few moments, unsure of what to do. What did I do last time? Nothing. I was thinking of how bored I was of the class and of how many hours of sleep I got last night when it happened. I think I just need to concentrate on it like I've done with my other power I've gained recently.

So, holding my breath, I close my eyes. With a slight kick, I feel a surge of energy enter my body, a trickle running down my arm and into my palms. It feels like I'm using a muscle in my mind I've never known of before, and it's clumsy and out of practice. Yet my fingers suddenly feel a slight tingling in them, so I open my eyes and smile at the sight. There, dancing on my fingers, are small flames.

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This is not the first time this has happened. I mean, I've never had fire materialize on my fingers before, but this isn't the first time something as strange as this has occurred. A couple of days ago, I found out that I can move objects without the help of my hands—telekinesis, if you will. It's pretty awesome so far. But unfortunately, I haven't been able to use it a lot, as we are trying to keep a low profile. No using powers in school, or at home unless nobody is around. Yesterday, my friends and I all got together at my friend Upuli's house, and we went out into a field that nobody ever goes to and used our new abilities freely. Of course, at the time, we were still panicked and didn't know what the heck is wrong with us, as we all began developing random (yet amazing) abilities throughout the last few days. We held a long discussion, and eventually came to the conclusion that something must have happened to us that allowed us to have these superhuman capabilities. What that is, exactly, we have no clue. Could it have something to do with the Avengers? Ha—wouldn't that be cool? But they all live in New York City (I think?), and we are just random school kids that live halfway across the country in a small hick town. There is no explanation as to why we are randomly sharing similarities with the heroes. Yet.

I sigh as I sit down at the lunch table, exhausted by the events of the past week. Well, I suppose it's been more than just this week... The ordeal in New York City with the Avengers vs. Aliens last month has taken its toll on everybody. Watching on TV in class how those aliens came and wrecked pretty much everything, killing countless innocent people and then watching the heroes come and save the day… it was pretty intense. But hey, there was no school for a week, so it's all cool.

Soon my friends come and gather at the table with questioning looks on their faces. I look at each of them in turn: Landes, Kylin, Upuli, Emily, Sam, Kidist, then Rayna. The orch dork girls. Oh, and there's also me, Rachael. Hello, there.

I mentioned while passing them in the halls that I've got a new power, but there were no time for questions until now. So I wait for them to sit at the circular table around me, and the questions start.

I laugh. "Okay, so apparently I can make fire," I explain quickly.

Every one of their jaws drop.

"How… how did you not get caught?!" Landes asks incredulously.

I laugh again excitedly, thinking once more about how I could have been doing anything at that moment when my fingers flashed with that flame—playing with my hair, holding my paper, shaking someone's hand, writing something on the board… it's a miracle that my hands were sweating. That's the only reason I put my pencil down.

"I was lucky," I reply shortly.

"Yeah, apparently," Kylin says, eyebrows raised, nodding.

"So, let's list 'em now," I declare, leaning over the table, deciding against lowering my voice a bit—it's so loud in this cafeteria, I'm not really that paranoid about people overhearing us when I can hardly hear across the table. "There's me, with telekinesis and now fire. Then there's Upuli, with shape shifting. Kylin, with geokinesis—"

"With what?" Emily interrupts.

"Geokinesis," I repeat, then elaborate. "I looked it up last night. It's what we call 'the ability to control the earth.' Which is Kylin's power."

"Oh. Cool," Emily replies.

I laugh. "Yeah. And she can read minds. And of course, her knack for being a supernatural genius."

Kylin beams.

"Then there's yours"—I point to Emily—"which is invisibility, and… wall crawling?"

"I guess so!" she replies. Yesterday, when we were all testing our abilities together, I looked over to see her step on the side of a tree, testing its weight, then suddenly taking another step and walking sideways as if gravity had suddenly shifted ninety degrees. Of course, then after that, Emily had become aware of what she was doing and freaked out and fell. But, after getting all of our attention, she tried it again with her hands, sharing a scary resemblance to Spiderman. (I'm beginning to wonder if we are turning into superheroes.) Speaking of Spiderman…

"So, then we have Landes, with her teleportation, silver tongue, and her remarkable new Spidey senses, which help out with her combat skills."

"I think that's a sign or something, you guys," Upuli interrupts. "Well, all of this is. We have powers, and we're also, like, ninjas. I think we're going to save the world someday." She sits back, satisfied with her declaration.

We all laugh simultaneously. "How cool would that be?" Kylin replies, although we all know to keep our doubts.

After that dies down, I go on. "Anyway, then there's Kidist, with weather and plant manipulation—and of course her charm. Then Rayna, who can fly? And can breathe underwater. And finally, Sam, who is crazy fast, can control people's emotions on a frightening level, and has technokinesis."

I feel a couple of people begin to ask questions about the last word, but it dies down, as everyone knows what I mean. Technokinesis, "the mental manipulation of electric and digital technology." (that's a bit wordy for me, I promise I'm not really a nerd. Well, okay, maybe a little…) Technokinesis seems like a pretty crafty tool. Who needs a hacker when you've got magic?

Magic.

The word seems to stop everything around me, and I bite my tongue as if the word is poisonous and I just swallowed it. Did I really just say magic? Could it actually be magic? Of course it is. What else could it be, science? Well I'd love to see the formula for these tests. These experiments. No, it can't be science. It's magic. Magic. We are, what now? Magicians.

I look up.

Hogwarts, here I come!

Although it's not like that. We are not wizards or witches. There are no spells we use. We simply are.

Which makes us awesome.

"Okay, I'm getting food," I declare, snapping out of my trance and standing from my seat. "Who's coming?"

[][][]

The bell finally rings and I exit my class hurriedly. I go through my usual routine: avoiding people, going to my locker, avoiding people, meeting up with friends, avoiding more people, grabbing my violin, grabbing a couple of my friends who can come, and making a run for it. We decided earlier that we will meet at Upuli's house again, and continue to take control over our powers. Only, not all of us could come, having their own personal matters to attend. So I take Upuli, Landes, and Kylin in my car and we drive to the house.

About thirty minutes later, we are fed again and are walking to the field hidden behind Upuli's house. We go deeper into the field this time, closer to the forest, for fear of being seen. We don't stop until there is no civilization in sight—just us, and our powers.

We all smile at each other when we stop, just before I summon my fire quicker than ever before and shoot it in Landes' direction. She yells in shock, but dodges it just in time. I expected to shoot just a fireball, but since the ability is new and I am unsure of how to use it completely, I can't stop it from coming out of my hands. So my wanted element of quick surprise is ruined when the surprise can't stop, shooting flames as if my hands are a fire torch. I yell in confused frustration, wanting it to stop. So, thinking of how I turned it on, or turned it off last time, I close my eyes and use the new muscle in my head that turned the fire on, like a switch, and it flips off easily.

I breathe out in relief—what would have happened if I couldn't turn it off and I aimed down? I would have started a wildfire! "I need to think of better ways to use this," I think aloud.

"Yeah," Upuli replies. "How about… a fire ball? Mario style?"

I sigh. "That's what I just tried to do."

"Well, turn off your hands sooner," Landes suggests.

I think about this, then nod. "Okay," I say. I make fire materialize in my hands just as quickly as before, holding my hands out of the way of everything, and shut it off just as quickly—which causes it to dissipate into the air as if it was never there. I groan.

"Maybe you should try shooting it? Like, straighten out your arm as soon as you make fire so it actually gets off your hand?" Kylin proposes.

I nod and do as she says. It takes a couple of tries, but in a minute, I've got fire shooting in a ball across the field and striking a tree nearby, where it dissolves into a thin puff of smoke. I smile. Once I have that power under control, we try playing with each other once more. Upuli shape shifts into a black lab, running around us in circles, while Kylin uses her geokinesis to control a root coming out of the ground and tripping her. Landes and I wrestle for a little bit, but that doesn't last long. Once I have her successfully on the ground, she teleports behind me and pushes me to the ground instead. With this, I grab Kylin's root from her mind's grasp with my telekinesis and make it wrap around Landes' ankle, tripping her so she lands beside me. This goes on for a couple of hours, until I realize that my family is probably wondering where I am. I forgot to text them about where I was going, again.

Kylin stops as she realizes this, also, remembering that she has a test in Algebra 2 tomorrow that she needs to study for. As we all come to this realization, we grudgingly quit for the day, walking slowly back toward Upuli's house. And just before we see civilization again, I turn and, out of partial anger (mostly just to let out the rest of my steam), I shoot two columns of fire from my hands. It feels so good, the way heat spreads through me as if I'm taking a hot shower. I close my eyes in the last blissful moment of it. Then I stop, knowing to control myself before I set the field on fire, or before someone sees. But they won't—we're still far away from the city.

Wishful thinking, I think as I turn around and see a man.

He is tall, with long black hair slicked back away from his face that falls relatively neatly at his shoulders behind his ears. But it is his clothes that tear me away from his face before I can take in all of it: he wears what seems to be armor, I guess, mostly all black but with shades of green here and there. I can tell you this: his attire is definitely not that common, here. On Earth.

Oh, quit being so paranoid, I tell myself. Just because aliens exist and can come to Earth doesn't mean they're everywhere. Besides, the aliens in New York City looked nothing like humans!

The man's mouth finally opens to speak, his grim, yet incredulous expression never leaving his face just as his eyes never leave mine. "How did you do that?"

To be continued!